Method for allocating resources in a wireless system

ABSTRACT

Network resources such as in a wireless system may be allocated to user devices on the network based upon at least one or more minimum user requirements being satisfied. A user may be determined as satisfied when minimum requirements of rate and delay are reached or maintained. The network may optimize throughput on the network by allowing a maximum number of users on the network to be satisfied. Users may be ranked according to signal quality, and network resources may be allocated to users according to rank to satisfy users until the resources of the network are allocated.

BACKGROUND

In a system with limited resources and spectrum such as a wireless cellular network, the system determines how to allocate resources to users. In typical voice networks such as 2G systems, users are served on a first come first served basis, as long as the user is in an area that has a minimum signal quality. Future networks are intended to provide more data services over cellular networks, such as 3G systems, so a different criterion other than a minimum signal quality is typically employed. Since data is more tolerable to delays than voice, typical data networks attempt to serve a user when a higher channel quality is present so as to minimize usage of common wireless resources such as spectrum in order to achieve a maximum throughput of the base station. However, systems that allocate resources on the basis of channel quality alone do not accommodate the issue of what rate each user desires.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGS.

The invention may be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals identify like elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a base station in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a method for allocating resources in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a communications system in accordance with an embodiment of present invention will be discussed. In one embodiment, communications system 100 may include a base station 110 that communicates with one or more devices 112–114, over one or more communication links 116–118. In one embodiment, at least one or more of communications links 116–118 may be a wireless link, such as a radio-frequency communications link in a cellular telephone network, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect. Devices 112–114 may be wireless phones, personal digital assistants, computers, pagers, portable music players, or any other device capable of communicating with base station 110 via at least one or more communication links 116–118, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.

In one embodiment, at least one or more of devices 112–114 may be transportable by a user, such as a hand held device, and may be operated by a user while being hand held or otherwise on the person of the user, such as in a pocket, attached to a belt or holster, and so on. Base station 110 may allow devices 112–114 to communicate with other devices 112–114, and may allow devices 112–114 to communicate via network 120. In one embodiment, network 120 may be a wide area network or world wide network such as the Internet, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.

In one embodiment, at least one or more of devices 112–114 may be battery operated where the battery serves as a power source during operation, and may alternatively be powered from an external power source such as an ac or dc power source, directly, to charge the battery, or to provide supplemental power to the device, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect. In one embodiment of the invention, communications system 100 may comprise a wireless or a cellular network compliant with at least one or more cellular standards, including but not limited to 3GPP, WCDMA, CDMA 2000, GSM-GPRS, GSM-EGPRS, IEEE Standards 802.11a, 802.11b, and so on, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect. Other wireless standards may be utilized without departing from the scope of the invention and without providing substantial change thereto.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of a base station in accordance with the present invention will be discussed. Base station 110 may include the components as shown in FIG. 2, and alternatively base station 110 may also include more or fewer components without altering the scope of the invention. Base station 110 may include a control unit 210 to control the operation of base station 110. Control unit 210 may include a microprocessor or a controller, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect. A transceiver 212 and optionally included one or more antennas 214 couple with control unit 210 so that base station 110 may communicate with devices 112–114 via a wireless communication link 116–118.

In one embodiment of the invention, although not necessarily all, a storage device 216 may couple to control unit 210 to store an application 218, and also data or other information. Storage device 216 may include a memory device such as semiconductor memory, for example random access memory (RAM), flash memory, a disk drive, or the like, although the scope of the invention is not limited in this respect. Application 218 may adapt control unit 210 so that that base station 110 may operate to allocate resources to devices 112–114 by implementing a method for allocating resources in accordance with the present invention, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect. At least one embodiment of a method for allocating resources to one or more of devices 112–114 is discussed with respect to FIG. 3.

In one embodiment of the invention, delay may refer to the amount of time a packet waits for transmission at the base station, although the scope of the invention is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments of the invention, the delay variation may be a factor rather than the absolute delay. For example, in a voice call the delay may be a factor but in video streaming, e.g., playing an MPEG movie, the initial delay may not be a factor since some amount of data may be buffered prior to playing the movie, for example where the variation does not exceed the buffer size. Rate may refer to the amount of data sent by the transmitter to a user over a certain time interval, typically a few seconds, although the scope of the invention is not limited in this respect.

In one embodiment, base station 110 may obtain data to transmit to the different users, for example from the network or from other devices. The obtained data may be held in queues waiting to be transmitted to the devices. The average data rate may be constant, for example as in video streaming or video call in which the rate requirements are constant and the application may not work properly if it is not maintained, or it may be a best effort as in web browsing or email downloading in which case the rate requirements may reflect a minimal requirement to keep a normal user happy, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a method for allocating resources in accordance with the present invention will be discussed. Method 300 may be implemented by application 218 executed by control unit 210 of base station 110. Method 300 starts at block 310 at which users of devices 112–114 are indicated as not satisfied. In at least one embodiment of the invention, a user of one of devices 112–114 may be considered satisfied when at least one desired value of rate or delay are reached or maintained for the user, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.

In one embodiment of the invention, for example, device 112 may be an audio based device utilizing a voice messaging application. In such an example, an acceptable data rate may be defined in the range of 4–13 kb/s with a one-way delay time smaller than 1 second. As an example, delay variation may be a factor and may be on the order of 1 millisecond. In this embodiment, the user of device 112 may be defined as being satisfied when base station 110 is capable of providing device 112 with a transmission rate of at least 4 kb/s and a delay time less than or equal to 1 second of delay variation. As another example, device 112 may be capable of utilizing a video application. In such an example, an acceptable data rate may be defined as 384 kb/s (one of many example values) with a startup delay time smaller than 10 seconds. Delay variation may be a factor and may be less than 2 seconds. In this embodiment, the user of device 112 may be defined as being satisfied when base station 110 is capable of providing device 112 with a transmission rate of at least 384 kb/s and a startup delay time less than or equal to 10 seconds of delay variation. Devices 112–114 may have a combination of rate and delay desired values in order to be considered as satisfied, and a combination of one of devices 112–114 need not be similar or identical, although the scope of the invention is not limited in this respect.

In one embodiment of the invention, feedback may be gathered from users based on the signal quality at their slot, at block 312. In a shared environment, communication may be typically done in time periods of constant duration which may be referred to as slots. In the slots, transmission may be scheduled to 0 or more users. A scheduler may decide at which slots transmission occurs to the user, and then which resources are allocated to a user in a particular slot, for example how much power, how many codes, what portion of the frequency, and so on, according to the resources that may be shared. The scheduler also may determine how to deliver the data to the user, for example what modulation to use, what coding scheme to user, and so on, depending upon the physical layer capabilities. Signal quality may refer a measure of the quality of the link between the base station and the device, and may be, for example, the instantaneous Signal to Interference and Noise Ration (SINR) at the device, or the achievable instantaneous rate at the device, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.

Users may be ranked, at block 314, based on signal quality determined at step 314, and a variable i is set at a value of 1. In one embodiment, users having a higher signal quality may be ranked higher than users having a lower signal quality, although the scope of the invention is not limited in this respect. A determination is made, at block 316, whether user i is satisfied. If user i is satisfied, the variable i may be increased by a value of 1, at block 318, and method 300 continues, at block 316, with the next ranked user. In the event user i is not satisfied, resources are allocated to user i at step 320 until a determination is made at step 322 that the requirements of the user i are met, at which time user i is marked as satisfied. A determination may be made at step 324 whether all resources have been allocated. In the event all resources have not been allocated, variable i may be incremented by a value of 1 at step 318, and method 300 may continue to execute at step 316 with the next user. In the event that all resources are allocated, the satisfaction level of all users may be updated at step 326, and method 300 may continue at step 312 at the next time slot, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect. Time may be advanced to the next time slot at step 328.

In one embodiment of the present invention, such as illustrated in FIG. 3, base station 110 may maintain a maximum number of live calls or communications links according to at least one or more preferences of at least one or more users. As a result, base station 110 may provide a capacity for a number of supported users. Thus, in one embodiment of the invention, base station 110 may utilize a throughput criterion under a constraint of a number of satisfied users although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect. In at least one embodiment of the invention, a user may be considered satisfied when at least one or more desired values of rate and delay are maintained for the user, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.

In one or more alternative embodiments of the invention, method 300 may be modified to provide other optional bases for allocating resources. For example, block 314 may be modified in one embodiment to rank users according to delay, or some variation of delay, for example users having a tighter delay constraint may be ranked higher than users having a less tight delay constraint. A user may be determined to be satisfied at block 316 in the event quality exceeds a predetermined threshold, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect. In another embodiment, block 314 may be modified to rank users according to the delay and the quality. In yet another embodiment, block 314 may be modified to rank users according to a percentage of resources required to keep the user satisfied for the next N time slots, N being a parameter, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect. In a further alternative embodiment, a velocity estimator per user may be provided by making a ranking of delay or quality and delay. In particular, a lower speed user may be given priority over a higher speed user in terms of channel quality, but not on delay. In such an embodiment, a higher speed user may have greater fluctuation in quality, and thus may not stay in a lower quality condition for long time periods, whereas a lower speed user may suffer from longer periods of lower quality, although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.

Although the invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it should be recognized that elements thereof may be altered by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is believed that the common resource allocation in a wireless system of the present invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood by the forgoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the components thereof without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention or without sacrificing all of its material advantages, the form herein before described being merely an explanatory embodiment thereof, and further without providing substantial change thereto. It is the intention of the claims to encompass and include such changes. 

1. A method, comprising: gathering feedback from users via devices, the feedback is based on a signal quality at a corresponding slot on a network, the slot including a time period of constant duration in which communication occurs; ranking the users based on the signal quality associated with each of the users; determining a satisfaction level of each of the users for a communication rate and delay time at the slot, the determining of the satisfaction level is based on the ranking of each of the users; and allocating network resources to the users based on the corresponding satisfaction level of each of the users.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating of the network resources includes allocating resources on the network among the users so until a predetermined number of the users is satisfied for the communication rate and delay time of the users.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating of the network resources continues until each of the network resources are allocated.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising ranking the users on the network according to one or more parameters selected from a group consisting of one or more of delay, quality, a percentage of resources required to keep a user satisfied for a predetermined number of time slots, and velocity.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising iteratively executing the allocating of the network resources until the network resources are allocated.
 6. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to: gather feedback from users via devices, the feedback is based on a signal quality at a corresponding slot on a network, the slot including a time period of constant duration in which communication occurs; rank the users based on the signal quality associated with each of the users; determine a satisfaction level of each of the users for a communication rate and delay time at the slot, the determining of the satisfaction level is based on the ranking of each of the users; and allocate network resources to the users based on the corresponding satisfaction level of each of the users.
 7. The machine-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the allocating of the network resources includes allocating resources on the network among the users so until a predetermined number of the users is satisfied for the communication rate and delay time of the users.
 8. The machine-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the allocating of the network resources continues until each of the network resources are allocated.
 9. The machine-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions when executed, further cause the machine to rank the users on the network according to one or more parameters selected from a group consisting of one or more of delay, quality, a percentage of resources required to keep a user satisfied for a predetermined number of time slots, and velocity.
 10. The machine-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions when executed, further cause the machine to iteratively execute the allocating of the network resources until the network resources are allocated.
 11. A system, comprising: a server system coupled with client systems over a network, the server system having a base station, the base station to gather feedback from users via the client systems, the feedback is based on a signal quality at a corresponding slot on a network, the slot including a time period of constant duration in which communication occurs; rank the users based on the signal quality associated with each of the users; determine a satisfaction level of each of the users for a communication rate and delay time at the slot, the determining of the satisfaction level is based on the ranking of each of the users; and allocate network resources to the users based on the corresponding satisfaction level of each of the users.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the allocating of the network resources includes allocating resources on the network among the users so until a predetermined number of the users is satisfied for the communication rate and delay time of the users.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the allocating of the network resources continues until each of the network resources are allocated.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein the base station is further to rank the users on the network according to one or more parameters selected from a group consisting of one or more of delay, quality, a percentage of resources required to keep a user satisfied for a predetermined number of time slots, and velocity.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein the base station is further to iteratively executing the allocating of the network resources until the network resources are allocated. 